Richard Branson was once arrested for pulling an extreme April Fool's Day prank

Everyone should be wary of any "news" from the Virgin Group on
April 1 — or March 31, depending on what time zone you're in.

Its founder and chairman, Richard Branson, is a notoriously huge
fan of April Fool's Day and he enjoys using it as a way to score
some marketing for his brands and trick the media and public in
the process.

Virgin hasn't given up the joke yet, but its latest assumed
prank is an Airbnb-esque logo redesign for its airline
Virgin America, in the shape of a woman's bikini top. It even
comes
with a launch video satirizing the self-importance of Silicon
Valley.

Last year, Branson collaborated with the government of
Branson, Missouri, to announce that he was relocating Virgin's
United Kingdom headquarters to the small town.

Branson explained in his 2014 book "The Virgin Way" that an essential part of the
brand is fun, and so a harmless April Fool's Day joke is a
perfect fit.

But one of the biggest pranks he ever backfired spectacularly and
landed him in a holding cell for almost 12 hours, in his pajamas,
he wrote.

On March 31, sometime back in the '90s, Branson decided that his
early Virgin Records business partner, Ken Berry, was going to be
his April Fool's target.

Branson invited Berry and his girlfriend to a nice late-night
dinner at a rooftop restaurant he owned — for the purpose of
distracting him while some "hired hands," as Branson calls them,
broke into Berry's apartment at midnight and stole his furniture,
television, and stereo. When Berry arrived at his emptied
apartment, actors posing as policemen would follow him in to
interrogate him and dust for fingerprints. After Berry suffered
long enough, Branson would pop in to yell "April Fool!" and move
everything back in.

But things started to go wrong when Branson returned to his table
from a phone call at 12:15 to find that Berry and his girlfriend
had left, leaving a note saying, "Thanks for dinner, see you
tomorrow. Ken." Branson writes that he started to panic, since he
was supposed to sneak over to Berry's place to manage the prank.

"Not knowing what to do I headed for home and was greeted by my
wife Joan (who wasn't in on the joke because she would have
totally disapproved of it) saying, 'Richard, something awful has
happened. Kenny's flat's been broken into and the police are
there now. He called to ask if his girlfriend could spend the
night with us as she's too scared to stay in the flat,'" Branson
writes.

Branson decided the joke was long past spoiled, and he called
Berry to come clean. The thing was, Berry had already filed a
police report. He told Branson he'd try to work something out.

Before Branson had a chance to go to bed, two cops showed up at
his door and arrested him. He was in his bathrobe and slippers as
he protested, "This is all a terrible mistake."

They took him to the Harrow Road Police Station and tossed him
into a holding cell, taking his robe's sash from him, following
protocol for potential suicide threats.

After a half hour of dozing, Branson writes, he was startled by
screams coming from the cell next to him. He couldn't see what
was happening, but "it sounded like a beating was underway as I
heard, 'Please don't hit me again. Honest, guv, I didn't do
nothing!'"

Branson spent the entire night and morning in the cell before two
police officers took him upstairs around noon to charge him with
"a dozen or more offences including wasting police time," he
says.

Confused, tired, and ashamed, he stepped outside into the
daylight and was greeted by his Virgin Records staff, led by
Berry and police. "April Fool!" they yelled.

Branson then learned that after he had confessed to Berry on the
phone that the burglary was just an elaborate prank, Berry asked
the police officers to drop the case.

A
couple of English police officers.Matthew Lloyd/Getty

The annoyed cops wanted to charge Branson with criminal mischief
and wasting police time, but Berry claims he was able to strike a
deal: They wouldn't press charges if they could keep Branson in a
holding cell until noon, which according to "official" April
Fool's rules, is when you have to announce a prank. The beating
in the cell next to Branson was staged for extra flair.

So while this all may seem like "fun" that's gotten out of hand,
Branson insists it's just a byproduct of the kind of corporate
culture that has allowed Virgin employees to feel free to express
themselves and give their all to the company.

In the "Virgin Way," he writes, "At every step along the way,
from 'Student' magazine to Virgin Galactic and everything in
between, we have certainly enjoyed great times together and
laughed a lot — quite often at my expense, as with my night
locked up in a London police station cell!"

Here's Virgin's cheeky video about the launch of the "new Virgin
America logo":